The last year has been a rough one for PokerStars. First, they were hit with Black Friday, causing them to pull out of the American online poker market and wrestle through negotiations with the United States Department of Justice. In May, Thomas Kremser, the director of the European Poker Tour since 2004 left, stating that the “time is right to explore new adventures”. Now, in the last month, PokerStars has lost not only John Duthie as the CEO for the EPT (and brains behind its conception) and member of Team PokerStars Pro, but now Gabi Campos, the CEO of PokerStars, has decided to leave the company as well.
Campos came to PokerStars after Black Friday when the previous CEO was indicted by the US DOJ in the events surrounding Black Friday. The previously family-controlled business sought out Gabriel “Gabi” Campos Woslovsky, a former member of Mossad, the Israeli Intelligence Agency, who had extensive experience managing computing and IT teams throughout Israel. Campos made a career change and joined up with PokerStars competitor 888 Poker in 2007, becoming the managing director of Dragonfish in 2009. PokerStars does not currently have a replacement lined up for Campos, although they have announced that they will be actively searching while he stays on until February 1st of this year. This is a surprising turn of events, as Campos, while a part of PokerStars since late July, only took over operations in early October.
A lot of speculation is circling regarding Campos’ departure. Many are pointing to Campos’ history, stating that this sudden departure seems very similar to 15 months ago, when he cut ties 888 Poker to “pursue new challenges”. Even the wording this time around is similar, as PokerStars has released a statement that his departure is due to plans to “pursue other opportunities”– does this mean that Campos is hopping over to another poker giant?
However, it’s hard to look at Campos’ departure without taking into consideration that he is not the only PokerStars loss recently. Recent news articles make it seem like a lot of important people are jumping ship from PokerStars, all citing vague reasons such as “other opportunities” and the predicted poker boom that may or may not result from the return of online gambling to the United States. Players Greg Raymer and Joe Hatchem have also ended their relationships with the site in the last year, and Hatchem also fed the media a line about his departure, citing, like the others, that it was “time to pursue different career opportunities.”
PokerStars has received a lot of criticism lately from players due to a proposed rake structure change which was tossed out due to player protests. PokerStars is changing their VIP program and contributed rake method however, and a lot of players are openly unhappy with these changes. Could the changes at PokerStars, both at the tables and in the offices, be an indication of trouble in paradise? Maybe, but maybe not. Only time (or insider information) will tell exactly what’s going on over at PokerStars.